MAGNET SCHOOL PROPOSAL IS QUESTIONED BY SOME PARENTS

RIVIERA BEACH -- Magnet programs to draw white students to predominantly black Suncoast High School will work if they are approved by the Palm Beach County School Board tonight, a school district administrator vowed on Tuesday.

But 40 parents of Suncoast High School students met the explanations of the Palm Beach County school district's proposals to place four magnet programs into the school with doubt Tuesday night.

Many particularly wanted the school's boundaries to be changed. And they questioned whether the academic programs the school district is proposing will draw sufficient students.

Joseph Orr, associate superintendent of instruction, said he could understand their pessimism, because of the school's declining enrollment and because of the School Board's decision in November not to change boundaries to bring in more white students.

"I don't think the allowing of Suncoast's student population to dwindle to 600 or 700 students was wise," he said. "Percentage-wise the people that (the School Board) have to respond to are the people who have the greatest numbers on the registration books."

The magnet programs the district is proposing include the International Baccalaureate program, a rigorous college preparatory program that can lead to eliminating one year of college; a high technology program; an intensive math and science program; and a traditional program that emphasizes traditional academics, a strict discipline and dress code, and a 'C' grade average.

The School Board will make a final decision on the proposal tonight.

The parents questioned whether the proposal that would require all students at the Riviera Beach school to participate in a program that stresses traditional education, a strict discipline and dress code and a 2.0 grade point average out of a possible 4 points, would work.

But Orr predicted that the students with below C averages would raise them if they had the goal to reach -- he pointed out that the state requires a 1.5 grade point average to graduate.

Parents also want the district to assure them that $5 million slated for improvements at Suncoast will be used on the school whether magnet programs are placed in the school or not.

School Board member Gail Bjork said she has received strong positive feedback to the programs from residents in the Jupiter area.

"I think the whole idea of magnets interests people," she said. "That's not only the key to the success of the school but the key to the success of integration. It's been successful in other areas, so there is no reason it shouldn't be successful here."